Meet the artist disrupting Zaha Hadid’s Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati
Lauren Henkin’s series of sculptural interventions in unexpected spaces is giving the late architect’s first US building a new slant

‘What is art?’ seems to be a never-ending debate. This time, though, it’s not the critics looking down their noses, but in fact, an artist forging the dialogue. Recently opened at Cincinnati’s Contemporary Arts Center (CAC), an exhibition by sculptor and photographer Lauren Henkin returns to her original study of space with eight site-specific sculptures.
In the series Props, she wagers a challenge to museumgoers ‘to consider what their criteria is in determining whether something is art’. The CAC, in fact, is the first realised project in the US by the late Zaha Hadid, and the first American museum designed by a woman. The building itself was actually the springboard for Henkin, who originally studied architecture and recently ‘returned to sculpture, which always felt like my native language’, she explains.
Prop 7, 2019, by Lauren Henkin.
‘In early 2018, I proposed creating sculptural interventions that incorporate the surrounding space and architecture into the actual pieces, where the entire environment would meld into a singular experience,’ the artist says after she met with CAC curator Steven Matijcio back in 2015. Though Matijcio has since left the museum (he’s now director of the Blaffer Art Museum in Houston), he was ‘looking at work that could live in unconventional spaces within the centre’ and intrigued by ‘Lauren’s approach to this architectural interruption’.
Props are quite literally interrupting the CAC’s galleries and passageways, key public spaces which the museum has previously kept free of any art display. For example, ‘I noticed that many people use the staircase instead of the elevator to move vertically through the building,’ says Henkin, so Prop 5 was imagined, fractal plywood that disrupts the building’s main staircase. But these interventions aren’t merely about their physical locations. ‘I wanted to break with the formality of building’s materials by using raw lumber, PVC pipes, electrical cables and more – materials that are rough, unkempt and unexpected,’ Henkin adds, in contrast to Hadid’s concrete and glass structure.
These works, in turn, create an active dialogue to Hadid’s space, something both Henkin and Matijcio both had at the forefront of their minds when creating the show. ‘Being a dynamic, evolving and timely non-collecting contemporary arts space, one must keep everything active – even the space itself,’ explains Matijcio. And Henkin’s works are ‘a captivating and considered debate with Zaha, spoken through materials, space and structure’. But whether constructions of pipes and plywood are themselves art? Well, Matijco replies, ‘When one exits their comfort zone, new ideas and navigations can take root. That was always the goal.’
Prop 5, 2019, by Lauren Henkin.
Prop 1, 2019, by Lauren Henkin.
Prop 3 (detail), 2019, by Lauren Henkin.
Prop 2, 2019, by Lauren Henkin
Prop 8, 2019, by Lauren Henkin
Prop 4, 2019, by Lauren Henkin
INFORMATION
‘Lauren Henkin: Props’, until March 2020, Contemporary Arts Center. contemporaryartscenter.org
ADDRESS
Contemporary Arts Center
44 East 6 Street
Cincinnati
-
Have fun with Le Ster’s engagement ring collection
Le Ster’s engagement rings encompass bold and fun forms
By Hannah Silver • Published
-
Palm Heights hotel is a Caribbean getaway with a game-changing new spa
Palm Heights hotel in Grand Cayman is the Caribbean destination that everyone is talking about. Here’s why
By Tilly Macalister-Smith • Published
-
Kent Andreasen on failed memories, the fear of AI, and keeping things simple
Cape Town-based photographer Kent Andreasen features in ‘Through the lens’, our monthly series spotlighting Wallpaper* contributors
By Sophie Gladstone • Published
-
The best London art exhibitions: a guide for this weekend
Your guide to the best London art exhibitions this weekend, as chosen by the Wallpaper* arts desk
By Harriet Lloyd Smith • Published
-
Sculptor Arnaldo Pomodoro transforms Fendi’s Rome HQ into a theatre of myth and magic
Fendi’s Roman HQ sets the scene for ‘Il Grande Teatro delle Civiltà’ a major show by Italian sculptor Arnaldo Pomodoro, who has also created a one-off edition of the house’s iconic Peekaboo bag. Read more in the July 2023 Issue of Wallpaper*, on newsstands 8 June
By Harriet Lloyd-Smith • Published
-
Superflex on building an underwater city for fish: ‘there are different rules down there’
Danish art collective Superflex discuss their ambitious Super Reef, an underwater urbanisation project aiming to restore more than 55 square kilometres of stone reef in Danish seas
By Alice Godwin • Published
-
New York art exhibitions: what to see in 2023
As Frieze 2023 gets ready to touch down at The Shed, explore our ongoing guide to the best New York art exhibitions 2023 for your diary
By Tilly Macalister-Smith • Published
-
Raffaele Salvoldi stacks hundreds of marble blocks for dazzling Milan installation
For a Milan Design Week 2023 installation, Italian artist Raffaele Salvoldi teams up with marble brand Salvatori to create architectural sculptures comprising hundreds of marble blocks
By Harriet Lloyd-Smith • Published
-
John Pawson unveils first-ever sculpture in Tokyo exhibition
At The Mass, Tokyo, British architect John Pawson stages his first solo exhibition in Japan, revealing his first sculpture and a new photography series
By Harriet Lloyd-Smith • Published
-
Los Angeles exhibitions: the best shows to see right now
Read our ongoing picks of the best new and upcoming LA art exhibitions to see under the California sun
By Harriet Lloyd-Smith • Published
-
Bosco Sodi’s monumental new Mexico City studio is a multifunctional feat
As Bosco Sodi unveils his new Studio CMDX in Atlampa, Mexico City, we speak to the artist about how the vast Alberto Kalach-designed former warehouse is a feat in multitasking
By Juliana Piskorz • Published